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Saudi-Led Coalition Downs Houthi Drones Before They Reach Target - Report

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have reportedly attacked two airports in southern Saudi Arabia, halting all air traffic, Yemeni media said.
Sputnik

The Al-Masirah news channel quoted a Yemeni armed forces spokesman as saying that the Qasef-2K drones targeted fighter jets and "important military sites" at the Jizan airport. Military targets were also engaged during a second attack on the Abha airport.

The Saudi-led coalition said Sunday that it had intercepted Houthi drones before they could reach their targets, according to Reuters.

"The drones were destroyed in air space", a coalition statement said, cited by Reuters.

A Houthi military spokesperson reportedly warned of "more painful operations" to come if the Saudi-led coalition did not stop airstrikes on rebel targets.

Yemen's armed Houthi political opposition faction and Saudi Arabia regularly exchange strikes in an ongoing deadly military conflict in Yemen.

The Saudi-led coalition has been engaged in the civil war in Yemen since March 2015, when it began carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at the request of Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. The United Nations has repeatedly called the Yemeni conflict the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with an estimated 24 million people – over 80 percent of the country’s population – currently in need of aid.

In December 2018, for the first time in several years, the parties to the Yemen conflict met for negotiations organized by the United Nations in Stockholm. The sides agreed to implement a ceasefire, exchange prisoners and open humanitarian corridors in the port city of Al Hudaydah.

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